How greed got us here

I've been mulling over something I said in a previous post; that I missed high-quality, American-made outdoor gear. I still miss it, but I've been chewing over why it isn't made anymore. I think I have an answer. We're greedy. I don't mean to sound preachy, because I'm just as guilty as the next guy (or gal).

When I think about my parents and grandparents, and the things I inherited from them, I realize that the precious heirlooms I've inherited are especially precious because they were relatively few. Simply put, my parents and grandparents didn't accumulate "stuff" they way I and most of my contemporaries do. Let's face it; as modern Americans, we're addicted to "more."

I'll give an example. My Dad owned a good shotgun, two good rifles, and two good pistols. They're still the prize pieces of my collection (and the reason I invested in a really good gun-safe). In my lifetime, I've owned close to a thousand guns. I buy junkers, clean them up, get them working, make them presentable again, then trade them off. I like trading junk guns, because I like tinkering on them, and I get real satisfaction from restoring old, unloved things. Beyond my constant rotation of junkers, I own several nice rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and I'm always looking to buy more. I collect them, you see.

Dad was happy with the guns he used. I own guns I've not even fired yet. Here's where this mentality gets me into trouble; I have some rifles I've not yet put scopes on. To get scopes on all of them on my budget, I'll have to go to cheaper scopes - that means imports. If I owned fewer rifles, I could upscale to nice American-made Leupolds (I have 3 Leupolds, and two of them are on Dad's old rifles, and one on a rifle he gave me for my fourteenth birthday.)

Like most folks, I don't earn an astronomical sum. Nor am I independently wealthy. My own greed gets me more guns, but not the beautiful pieces like Dad owned.

This same mentality follows me everywhere; more is better. I see it in my fellows too. We are a society of collectors. If we all agreed to buy fewer inferior foreign goods, and more quality American goods, we'd all be better off, right? It seems like this approach would create more American manufacturing jobs. It would certainly keep more of our money in our economy.

Starting now, I'm going to try this. I'm going to try to buy American as often as possible. We'll see how this works out for me. Perhaps I won't get depressed looking at labels like the one on my El-cheapo Simmons rifle scope (A Wal-Mart special). It says "Designed and Engineered in the U.S.A. - Manufactured in China." Maybe holding out like this will help me spend less, accumulate less, and feel better.

I'll keep you updated.